Tea at Trianon: Romantic Castles of the United Kingdom

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Romantic Castles of the United Kingdom

Crown of Scotland at Scone Castle

Belvoir Castle

From Victoria:

Undulating across the slopes of Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England, the formal gardens at Belvoir Castle—ancestral home to the dukes of Rutland for nearly a millennium—reflect a heritage of faithful cultivation. Lauded Edwardian architect Harold Ainsworth Peto designed the hilltop oasis, and each duchess in the lineage has added her influence to the picturesque setting.

Following their nuptials in 2011, Prince William and Kate Middleton retreated to The Isle of Anglesey to begin their married life. Visit the tranquil surrounds of this tiny island in northwest Wales, where a stroll down a groomed path through dense woodland offers a glimpse into the traditions of titled aristocracy at Plas Newydd. Erected in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the National Trust property consists of a gracious manor house and sprawling, elaborately manicured grounds. (Read more.)